According to Dr. David Samadi, who serves as Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery and Vice Chairman of Department of Urology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, hopes that the robotic surgery is the ideal process to treat prostate cancer but he emphasized that experience is important.

Dr. David Samadi

New York-based, Weill Cornell Medical College’s new study, which analyzed the results of 110,016 prostatectomy patients, supports the medical advantages of robotic radical prostatectomy surgery. Of 110,016 prostatectomy patients, 60% of patients underwent open procedures, 21% had laparoscopic and 19% had robotic prostatectomy procedures. Both robotic and laparoscopic were minimally invasive and required shorter period of hospital stays, and their perioperative morbidity rates were also lower.

Dr. Samadi explained that both robotic and laparoscopic procedures have more benefits over open surgery. Improved visibility and minute incisions offered clear visuals of the cancer site and facilitated the removal of the prostate via a more hygienic surgical field, he said. The robotic surgery improved the visibility by 10 times with three-dimensional imaging and the handiness of the robot is very accurate, he added.

The study concludes that surgeons involved in more number of procedures had the best results. Dr. Samadi agrees with the conclusion of the study. He said that either a robot or not, it is still a treatment and selecting a skilled surgeon is important. However, he contradicts with the study’s conclusion, according to which robotic surgery is simple to learn and expertise can be achieved in as low as 50 surgeries. He said that the earlier studies emphasized the necessity for over 1,600 procedures to attain satisfactory results.